Faceted gemstones include a transparent material cut into round, rectangular, oval, square or marquis shapes and consist of facets cut at various angles both on the crown and pavilion. The facets are disposed around the gem and over the entire gemstone surface. The angles of the facets are determined with respect to the optical axis of the gem, and determine the performance of the gem as regard to the gem's reflected and refracted light that is incident on the gem.
When the gem is mounted in a ring, pendant, or pin and is worn by the user, the facets may be scratched, chipped, and marred. Additionally, the gem, during shipment from the gem supplier to the final jeweler may be damaged. When damaged, the gem must then have the facets repolished to restore the gem to its original and clean and polished state.
Since the angles of the gem facets are unknown to the jeweler supplying the stone, or the owner of the stone, the angles of the gem facets must be determined in order to allow the gem cutter to restore the gem by repolishing facets to their original angle, thereby repairing damaged gems into their original polished facets at the original angles.
A need has thus developed for a measuring device in order to determine the facet angles of a gemstone.